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Small Fortune
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Game show · 2019

Small Fortune

Teams of three tackle microscopic challenges for big money in a single 2019 ITV game show.

Starring Dermot O'Leary
Overview

Dermot O'Leary presides over six episodes of pint-sized jeopardy filmed at Pinewood Studios, where squads of three contestants face off in five dexterity rounds staged inside perfect miniature dioramas. One nominated player gets a single shot at each micro-task; nail it and the team banks up to £50,000, but every extra practice swipe lops 10% off the pot. The survivors of the best-of-five then confront one last microscopic hurdle to convert their shrinking jackpot into hard cash.

The show’s hook is scale: a shrunken cathedral nave becomes a putting green, a toy-sized diner counter hosts a coffee-cup relay, and a model Thames bridge demands the threading of a needle suspended over toy traffic. Brian Blessed’s narration booms like a Roman god watching ants, while the contestants lean in with dental probes, tweezers and the sweaty concentration of bomb-disposal engineers.

ITV burned through the six-episode run between 2 February and 9 March 2019, then quietly shelved the format. NBC bought the rights days later, shot a version hosted by Lil Rel Howery in late 2020 and aired it during summer 2021, while South Korea’s tvN ordered a four-episode outing in January 2020. None of the international remakes returned for a second cycle, leaving the original British run as the only complete record of television’s brief obsession with shrinking money for expanding stress.

Production Details

ITV1 / 1 Season / 6 Episodes / 2019 - Present

Main Cast

Dermot O'Leary as Himself - Host

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Kip Ford
Kip Ford
TV Critic & Editorial Director
Kip Ford is Editorial Director at TV Reference. His encyclopedic knowledge spans every era of television history, with particular expertise in British and American drama, crime, and the golden age of network TV.